Lessons From The Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit (Independent Studies in Political Economy) is an excellent work to read this Labor Day!

The authors/editors are: Alvaro Vargas Llosa who is the director of the Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute; a lecturer on world economic and political issues at such venues as the World Economic Forum, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Council on Foreign Affairs, and the Inter-American Dialogue; and has contributed to the BBC World Service, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the New York Times, Time magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. Among his books are The Che Guevara Myth, the award-winning Liberty for Latin America, and The Madness of Things Peruvian. He lives in Washington, DC. James D. Gwartney is professor of economics, holder of the Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair, and director of the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

E. Calvin Beisner writes:

Alvaro Vargas Llosa’s (ed.) LESSONS FROM THE POOR: TRIUMPH OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT has studies of how five family businesses in Latin American, African, and Asian nations grew from nothing to major, even international businesses by the hard work, self-discipline, and service orientation of their founders, culminating in a chapter that summarizes the lessons. THE lesson? The key to overcoming poverty isn’t welfare, wealth redistribution, land reform, or anything else like that. It’s hard work and self-discipline coupled with careful study (not necessarily in school) with the intent to serve others well–and all of this in a context of at least a modicum of the Rule of Law, respect for property rights, and liberty to trade.

Though some politicians may be out on the campaign trail this Labor Day promising how much they’re going to “do” for working class Americans, this book reminds us that the best thing they can do is

1.  Protect property rights

2. Stop destroying commerce through regulation and taxation

3. Stop destroying the incentive to work

4. Start encouraging the private sector to come up with private solutions to public issues – like McCain’s offer of a prize for break throughs in battery technology

5. Stop trading our freedom for political power at the expense of programs that will bankrupt us